The present invention relates to a camera having a data registration device.
A data registration device has been widely known by which the date and time are registered on a film from the back or the front of a camera. When the exposure condition of a portion of a film on which the data is registered, is not adequate for registering data, the data is not registered well. For that reason, a method has been also known in which a mask (a light reducing means or a light shielding means) is used so that the light projected on the portion of a film on which the data is registered, is shaded for the purpose of registering the data clearly.
On the other hand, various kinds of data have become to be registered lately, so that a camera has been put into practical use by which the name of a place where the photograph was taken and the name of a photographed subject can be registered in addition to the date of photographing. For example, the applicants proposed a camera (Refer to Japanese Patent Application No 73210/1988.) which is characterized in that: film winding is stopped a plurality of times while a film is wound by the length of a frame; and a predetermined data is registered when film winding has been stopped, so that a large amount of data can be registered with a device of simple composition. The comments which are registered by a camera are alphabetic letters, numerals, Japanese katakana letters, Japanese hiragana letters, and the like, for example, and a photographer can optionally register those letters within a limitation of number of letters. Consequently, the number of letters to register a comment is various, wherein it must be within a limitation.
When the above-described light reducing means is applied to this kind of camera according to the prior art, the mask is made in accordance with the limitation of the registered data. In that case, a portion of a screen is always covered by the longest mask even when only the date and time are registered and a comment is omitted, or even when a short comment is registered together with a date and time. Accordingly, the covered portion on the screen is unnecessarily longer than the portion in which the data is actually registered, so that the finished photograph does not look well and further the subject is unnecessarily covered by a mask.